Two years ago, the Teamsters union secured a landmark commitment from UPS: the promise of air conditioning in new delivery trucks purchased after Jan. 1, 2024.
It was something the union had “fought long and hard for,” said Atlanta Teamsters Local 728 President and former UPS driver Matt Higdon, who was part of the negotiations.
But this summer, Teamsters leadership estimates the Sandy Springs-based company has bought only about 10% of the 28,000 new vehicles promised by 2028 and is demanding answers about how it expects to meet its deadline.
The company has “a lot of catching up to do to honor this agreement,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a recent statement. “The Teamsters’ patience with UPS mismanagement is wearing thin.”
“How does UPS expect to actually deliver 20,000 or more air-conditioned package cars and vans over the next two years, when the delivery giant is already so far behind? We want answers,” O’Brien added.
The contract that includes nearly 340,000 workers is the largest private collective bargaining agreement in North America.
In a statement, UPS spokesperson Genny Bowman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the company has responded to the union’s request for information.
“UPS cares about its employees and we remain committed to the agreements we reached with the Teamsters in 2023,” she said.
“We’re installing air conditioning in all new delivery vehicles we buy.”
The contract also contained other heat-related commitments, including installing two fans and exhaust heat shields in every existing package car, which she said the company has completed.
The union and UPS drivers have spent years pushing for in-cab AC. In 2018, the wife of a driver submitted an online petition to UPS management seeking air conditioning for its delivery trucks after her husband was hospitalized for heat stroke.
Credit: UPS
Credit: UPS
Higdon said two metro Atlanta drivers have gone to the emergency room in the past few weeks for heat-related injuries. UPS, however, told the AJC it has no record of hospitalizations in Georgia this year, and the AJC was not able to independently verify the Teamsters’ allegation. A union spokesperson said she could not provide further details because these cases are currently in a grievance process.
The company said it has also invested nearly $2 billion in U.S. safety training in the past five years, including continuous education about hydration and heat safety, new uniforms to optimize cooling as well as installing new fans, ice machines and water fountains in its facilities.
As part of the contract, UPS also agreed to “make reasonable efforts to prioritize” allocating the new cars to the southern, warmer parts of the country.
The Teamsters, however, allege the new cars have gone elsewhere instead. “We’re going to keep pushing and fighting and hold them accountable to it," Higdon told the AJC.
The frustration over AC implementation has coincided with news of the company’s plans to offer drivers buyouts for the first time in history, which the Teamsters say would “directly violate” their agreement.
The company is in the midst of reworking its entire network, a massive undertaking that will ultimately close 200 facilities and leave 400 facilities that are “either partially or fully automated,” UPS U.S. President Nando Cesarone said earlier this spring.
Earlier this year the company announced it would cut 20,000 jobs as it winds down its relationship with its biggest customer: Amazon.
It also cut 12,000 management roles last year.
The company “seems to be shifting more than ever toward shareholders and the bottom dollar and the profit instead of service of customers and employees and their contractual obligations,” Higdon said.
He described Teamsters’ morale at UPS as “high” given the strength of their current contract, “but they’re certainly pissed off.”
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